California (Edan Lepucki)

Summer Reading 2014

There is something about the long, hot days of summer that can be almost ominous. As the pavement shimmers and the horizon warps in the heat, one can’t escape the suspicion that this is potentially unsustainable, that it all might come crashing down. In Edan Lepucki’s debut novel, the perpetually summer city of Los Angeles does exactly that, leaving a young couple named Cal and Frida to endure the privations of shack-bound solitude. They are able to scrape by and eke out a precarious existence until Frida’s pregnancy forces them to seek solace amongst other survivors. Sometimes, the worst thing about the world ending is not that everyone is gone, but that some of them are still there.Available at Amazon.com